I am using Shapr3D for a particular project (astronomy / 3D printing related) and I am content to learn the basics (plus a bit) to design the parts I need but when it comes to designing a spur gear and rack gear to fit I think the learning curve is a “bridge too far”. I have downloaded an stl rack gear from turbosquid only to discover I cant edit it (My fault).
I don’t expect this stuff for free and it needs to be a good quality / reliable model; is there a place to purchase good quality shapr models / files ?
You’re welcome. Yes, you can edit those downloaded gears any way you want to. I do it all the time. I have a couple of std FDM 3D printers with 0.4mm nozzles and am able to print 32 pitch gears reasonably well for my use in prototyping. I prefer printing 24 pitch or larger. I print in either PETG or Pro-PLA. For gears, I also shave off a fraction of the tooth profile to get better performance results due to the nature 3D printed parts.
One other technique I use is to use one of the many gear generators like Free Gear Generator - Design & Create Spur Gears – Evolvent Design that will output a DXF. From that, you can extrude it however you like. For some gears, this would still be hard to get to what you need S3D, but for flat gears, it works well and gives you a lot of flexibility for the design of the gear.
I have an STL to DXF generator that I am hoping to launch a free web page for in the near future to do exactly what you were trying to do originally.
